From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: misc.rural
Subject: Re: How to clean up a big mess in the pasture ?
Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:49:16 -0400
Message-ID: <aioq64hkeq1lgnjgcftc4br27ne36o9rsf@4ax.com>

On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 13:20:30 -0700 (PDT), rjmacres@yahoo.com wrote:

>How do I clean all that glass out so I can use the pasture again ?  I
>know we can go out and start picking it up but I'm thinking it will take
>days and we still won't find it all.  We raise goats and llamas so I'm
>thinking glass is not good.
>
>Needless to say I'm not real pleased.

 >>YOU<< don't.  You contact his insurance company and request that they send
out an environmental cleanup company to clean up the mess and restore the
field to its original state.  They should also reconstruct your fence.

If they balk, call a lawyer and find out how to proceed.  THEY, not you are
responsible for the cleanup.  If you do the cleanup yourself then you probably
won't be reimbursed for your labor.  Sucks that it works that way but it does.

Expect them to come in and remove the top layer of dirt and haul it away.  It
will be replaced with clean dirt and grass or whatever ground cover you want
planted.  The cleanup company is responsible for processing the removed dirt.

I recently watched this process at a client's site.  An employee allowed about
150 gallons of hydraulic fluid to spill and didn't bother to dike around the
spill to contain it.  The fluid flowed through some high grass until it made
its way to a tiny creek.  That creek fed a larger creek and when the
shimmering multi-colored oil film was noticed in the larger creek, the state
environmental people were called.

My client had to bring in an environmental cleanup company.  They dug up all
that dirt and grass and hauled it away.  The dirt is decontaminated by burning
- running it through a rotary kiln not unlike a cement kiln.  New dirt was
hauled in, new ground cover planted and the creek bed restored.  Total cost:
around $20,000.

I predict that you'll have no problem with his insurance company.  The longer
the wait for this kind of clean-up, the wider the contamination area.  They'll
well understand that the damage needs to be remedied NOW.

John

From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: misc.rural
Subject: Re: How to clean up a big mess in the pasture ?
Date: Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:08:45 -0400
Message-ID: <m30u64lhk7ihp8smmgope5es7e9jitfmv8@4ax.com>

I strongly advise against calling in the EPA as the first step.  Environmental
liability and responsibility law is strange.  Making the wrong step can make
you (the property owner) have to do the cleanup out of your pocket and then
try to collect from his insurance or your insurance if he isn't insured.  You
do NOT want that to happen.

That's why I previously strongly advised consulting a lawyer.  Be sure to get
one who is familiar with your state's environmental regulations.  This is not
an areas for a GP or personal injury lawyer to be poking around in.  Let HIM
tell you how to go about things.  It may be that HE is the one who calls the
state EPA and can work out some sort of deal to avoid any liability toward you
BEFORE he discloses where the site is.

First thing, of course, is to chat with both your and his insurance companies.

John


On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:48:28 -0700, Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net> wrote:

>As far as how to proceed with cleanup (AND fence re-building...) I
>*WOULDN'T* - Instead, call your local version of the EPA and sic them on
>the driver and/or the vehicle's owner for the hazardous spill (oil and
>antifreeze both qualify, and if oil got loose, you can bet gasoline did,
>too, which just makes it that much more of a problem) cleanup. The
>driver/owner will take the insurance hit as part of the "put things back
>as they were" process of the claim. Your "EPA-type" operation, whatever
>name it goes under in your state/country, will know exactly who to call
>for such a cleanup, and you can bet that the insurance company involved
>will want to get the work done *YESTERDAY* to avoid the chance of the
>liquids spreading out/down any further. (and thereby jacking the cost of
>what could have been a $1000 payout - if it had been done quickly - into
>the tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars range after it
>contaminates groundwater, etc...)